{ "abstract": "Recently, rutile ruthenium dioxide (RuO 2 ) has attracted renewed interest due to expectations of prominent altermagnetic spin splitting. However, accumulating experimental evidence suggests that, in its bulk and thick-film forms, RuO 2 does not display any form of magnetic ordering. Despite this, the spin structure of RuO 2 remains largely unexplored in the ultrathin limit, where substrate-imposed epitaxial strain can be substantial. Here, we use spin-resolved angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, supported by ab initio calculations, to reveal the electronic structure of 2-nanometer-thick epitaxial RuO 2 heterostructures. We observe an unconventional spin texture characterized by the coexistence of mirror-even and mirror-odd momentum-dependent components. A comprehensive symmetry analysis rules out nonmagnetic origins of this spin texture. These findings suggest an emergent nonrelativistic spin structure enabled by epitaxial strain in the ultrathin limit, marking a distinct departure from the behavior of relaxed or bulk RuO 2 . Our work opens previously unexplored perspectives for exploring symmetry-breaking mechanisms and spin textures in oxide heterostructures.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA", "Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA", "Department of Applied Physics, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Republic of Korea", "Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA", "Photon Science Division, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen 5232, Switzerland", "Department of Physics and Photon Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea", "Applied Physics Graduate Program, Smalley-Curl Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA", "Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA", "Department of Integrative Energy, Myongji University, Yongin 17058, Republic of Korea", "National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA", "Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA", "Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA", "Smalley-Curl Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA", "New Technologies Research Center, University of West Bohemia, Plzen 301 00, Czech Republic", "Anthony J. Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA", "Department of Physics, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA", "Rice Laboratory for Emergent Magnetic Materials, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA" ], "article_type": null, "arxiv": null, "author_total": 27, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Yichen Zhang", "orcid": "0000-0002-8151-4454" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Seung Gyo Jeong", "orcid": "0000-0002-2504-3571" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Luca Buiarelli", "orcid": "0009-0004-8193-7037" }, { "affs": [ 2, 3 ], "name": "Seungjun Lee", "orcid": "0000-0001-8197-1287" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Yucheng Guo", "orcid": "0000-0003-0372-1578" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Jiajia Wen", "orcid": "0009-0002-0836-7133" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Hang Li", "orcid": "0000-0002-3694-4463" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Sreejith Nair", "orcid": "0000-0002-4457-2698" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "In Hyeok Choi", "orcid": "0009-0009-6067-6196" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Zheng Ren", "orcid": "0000-0002-2422-8216" }, { "affs": [ 6, 0 ], "name": "Ziqin Yue", "orcid": "0000-0003-3212-7113" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Jounghoon Hyun", "orcid": "0000-0003-2254-4984" }, { "affs": [ 6, 0 ], "name": "Tieqiong Zhang", "orcid": "0009-0001-0058-1330" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Alexei V. Fedorov", "orcid": "0000-0003-3510-3117" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Sung‐Kwan Mo", "orcid": "0000-0003-0711-8514" }, { "affs": [ 8, 9 ], "name": "Hojoon Lim", "orcid": "0000-0001-5106-511X" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Adrian H. Hunt", "orcid": "0000-0002-5283-9647" }, { "affs": [ 9 ], "name": "Iradwikanari Waluyo", "orcid": "0000-0002-4046-9722" }, { "affs": [ 10, 11, 0, 12 ], "name": "Junichiro Kono", "orcid": "0000-0002-4195-0577" }, { "affs": [ 13 ], "name": "J. Minář", "orcid": "0000-0001-9735-8479" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Jong Seok Lee", "orcid": "0000-0001-6317-7944" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Tony Low", "orcid": "0000-0002-5759-5899" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Turan Birol", "orcid": "0000-0001-5174-3320" }, { "affs": [ 14, 15 ], "name": "Rafael M. Fernandes", "orcid": "0000-0002-3584-5180" }, { "affs": [ 4 ], "name": "Milan Radovic", "orcid": "0000-0003-4042-9648" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Bharat Jalan", "orcid": "0000-0002-7940-0490" }, { "affs": [ 0, 16, 12 ], "name": "Ming Yi", "orcid": "0000-0001-8934-7905" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4y6pgc59c3neb.bib", "cited_by": 8, "doi": "10.1126/sciadv.aec2917", "fulltext_url": null, "id": "4y6pgc59c3neb", "issns": [ "2375-2548" ], "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec2917", "language": "en", "licence": "CC-BY", "licence_label": "CC BY", "licence_source": "journal", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "openalex", "3104|Magnetic properties of thin films" ], [ "openalex", "3107|Magnetic properties of thin films" ] ], "openalex": "W4415250673", "pdf_url": "https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.aec2917?download=true", "pmcid": "PMC13418741", "pmid": "42525773", "published": "2026-07-29", "publisher": "American Association for the Advancement of Science", "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4y6pgc59c3neb.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:26:43Z", "native_id": "W4415250673", "source": "openalex", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec2917" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "physics", "origin": "openalex:3107|Magnetic properties of thin films", "subfield": "amo" }, { "field": "physics", "origin": "openalex:3104|Magnetic properties of thin films", "subfield": "condensed-matter" } ], "title": "Observation of mirror-odd and mirror-even spin texture in ultrathin epitaxially strained RuO 2 films", "title_text": "Observation of mirror-odd and mirror-even spin texture in ultrathin epitaxially strained RuO 2 films", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-11-06T13:20:25Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4y6pgc59c3neb", "venue": "Science Advances", "versions": [] }